Troy business mall fills vacancy

B-Rocks Basics, Troy’s first clothing store in at least a decade, is scheduled to open sometime in May.

The Troy City Council granted storeowners Rick and Nancee Tallmadge a new business license during last week’s meeting. B-Rocks Basics will fill the remaining vacancy in Troy’s business mall after a new espresso shop took up residence in the building last month.

The store will sell clothing for toddlers up to adults, with a mix of styles, both name brand and generic, Nancee Tallmadge said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The couple is “shooting for” May 1 to open its doors, but the date could be pushed back.

In other news from Wednesday’s meeting:

• Mayor Jim Hammons announced that Troy received a $175,000 appropriation from Sen. Max Baucus to pay an engineering firm to get the city’s water project “shovel ready” in hopes of gaining federal stimulus money. The city is still waiting on other appropriation requests.

• The council voted unanimously to pass a new ordinance outlining city park rules. It will become law 30 days after its second reading at next month’s meeting. The three-page document, which City Clerk Sandra Johnson regarded as “some of the things that needed to be tidied up,” sets park hours and outlaws littering, damaging trees, defacing park property and other common-sense regulations.

• Councilmember Don Banning, who is also vice president of the Kootenai River Development Council, mentioned that he addressed KRDC during its last meeting about his concern that the council is spending all of its energy recruiting business for Libby and not Troy. He said that members agreed in the future to look for investment opportunities in Troy.

• The council granted Josh and Tina Moore a business license as the new owners of Lincoln Theater. The council agreed to wait to give Philip Blackstone, an independent contractor, a business license until he can be contacted for questions.

• Banning proposed allowing the public works department and electric department employees to work four 10-hour shifts. He said that personnel liked the schedule better, they’ve been allowed to do it before and that their shifts would be spread out to cover all five business days. The council agreed to discuss the matter further at the next meeting.